Dinosaur Ridge

I took the boys on a hike on Sunday just west of Denver near the mountains.  We went with some neighbor friends of ours and really enjoyed it!  The hike was called Dinosaur Ridge.  They had a visitor center at the start with some kid-friendly activities.

I

 T

hen we got down to the business of hiking.  Here are the boys sitting in an enormous dinosaur print.

 Lots of climbing...made for great afternoon naps!

Easter

We started the Easter festivities last week in Montana dyeing some eggs at Mom and Dad's.  We couldn't find any dye in good old Circle so we had to improvise with food coloring which worked great!

The boys had some treasures to find and open on Easter morning.

 This is the best picture I was able to capture of the 2 of them together in their Easter clothes.

Kaylynn and Sophie came over to play for the day and the weather was gorgeous!

We ended the afternoon by dyeing more eggs on the deck.  Charlie missed out on some of the Easter pictures due to a much-needed nap.

Butterflies and Bugs

Jamie did a fantastic job of photographing and blogging our latest trip to The Butterfly Pavilion.  Check it out at: The Yestertime Blog!

Snow!

 The past week has been filled with snow!  We haven't had much this winter so it's exciting to be able to do some winter activities such as sledding and shoveling.

We went sledding with some of our neighbor friends a few days ago.

The boys were trying to dig out their bikes and wagon which were deeply buried in the snow; however it kept them busy while the sidewalks and driveway were shoveled.

It takes awhile to dig out a bike with the tiniest of pink shovels.

Christmas Part 2

 After South Dakota, we headed to Montana for more Christmas fun.  Unfortunately, the fun ended early when half of us got the flu...so the pictures are less in number.

One of the best gifts was a Turbo Nerf gun from Uncle Pete.

If you look closely, you can see that Pete is reading to Charlie from a John Deere catalog.  I think they were studying new swathers and air seeders.

 James and I made "Shrinky Dinks" one day and he very patiently watched them bake.

It was truly a wonderful holiday!

Christmas Part 1

Christmas began with lots of preparations at our house including cookie making and decorations.  James and I made Santa cookies one afternoon while Charlie napped.

Then we celebrated with Cory, Jamie, and Kaylynn.

 Right before we left for South Dakota, my good friend Carolyn came for a quick visit with her husband and 3 kids - Ava, Wyatt, and Adelyn.  Getting 5 kids ages 6, 4, 4, 2, and 1 to sit still enough for a picture took tons of patience (and a few cookies).

Then at last it was Christmas Eve!  Santa came to visit us at Papa and Grandma's house in South Dakota.

A few of the boy's favorite gifts!

Honeymoon!

 Way back in November, Doug and I went to Jamaica for our 5 year anniversary.  Although I didn't take alot of pictures, here are a few of our days in paradise.